Tinubu's birthday colloquium: Why we must avoid war —Buhari

Let us live in peace, harmony — Tinubu

Nigerians better, stronger together — Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigerians are better and stronger in unity; urging them to avoid anything that cause disunity and war.

Buhari said this through virtual, as the chairman  at Bola Tinubu's birthday seminar titled: “Our Common Wealth:  The Imperative of National Cohesion for Growth and Prosperity’’, to celebrate the 69th birthday of  All Progressives Congress chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in Kano.

President Buhari spoke against the calls by groups and individuals for secession in different parts of the country.

But the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, vowed that under his watch, the Nigerian Army will be resolute in dealing decisively with any and every threat confronting the country.

Nigerians better, stronger together — Buhari

Buhari speaking at the colloquium also virtually attended by the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo; House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila; Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; among others, whose flights to Kano were disrupted by poor weather, President Buhari said the theme of the occasion was suitable for the contemporary issue of secession and national unity in the country.

He said: “Despite occasional inter-ethnic tensions in our national history, it seems to me that we have all agreed on one point, that notwithstanding our diversity or ethnicity, culture, language and religion, Nigerians are better, even stronger together.

“Asiwaju Tinubu himself is a known advocate of unity and cohesion in Nigeria. This has been a constant factor in his outstanding political career from the time he served in the short-lived Senate in the Third Republic to his involvement in the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate of the late Chief MKO Abiola to his much acclaimed years of service as the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007.

“I can also relate personally to the ideals of One Nigeria. As a military officer, I have served with great comrades from all the nooks and crannies of our country.

“In the course of my career, I have also been opportuned to serve in all parts of Nigeria, seeing first-hand the enticing possibilities of a strong, united nation.

“More importantly, I fought for the unity of Nigeria during the civil war – 1967 to 1970, and I saw first-hand the unspeakable horrors of war, not just from fellow soldiers from both sides but from civilians, innocent children, women and the elderly left behind.

“As we all know, the peace-keeping recovery and reconstruction that followed could also not have succeeded under an atmosphere of inter-ethnic animosity. We must count our blessings in Nigeria and see in them the crucial factors of peace and unity.”

Let us live in peace, harmony — Tinubu

*Appeals to FG to engage youth in nation building

NATIONAL Leader, All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has appealed to Nigerians to live in peace and harmony.

He also appealed to the Federal Government to recruit eligible youths into various national security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army.

He made the call, while addressing guests on Monday at his 12th colloquium birthday organised in his honour. Asiwaju Tinubu stated that the more youths are engaged in all aspects of nation-building, ranging from infrastructural development to agricultural modernization; the recruitment will restore peace within troubled regions and stop miscreants from recruiting young people to do their biddings.

He further stated that engaging more youths to participate in building a greater, safer and more prosperous country, the less some of them will be tempted to delve into illegal and dangerous activities.

As part of this overall approach, Tinubu beliefs that eligible youths should be recruited into the armed forces, police and other security agencies to augment the functional capacity of Nigeria’s security apparatus, thus ensuring the better security and safety of the people.

Tinubu also explained his choice of Kano State as the venue for his 12th Colloquium and 69th birthday, saying it was to prove to Nigerians that the Yoruba and Fulani people are united.

According him: “Why are we in Kano for this colloquium? Why? It is because there is a Fulani man, a herder man, who gave out his daughter to the family of a Yoruba man. Dan Fulani, Dan Yoruba. And some people are agitating wrongly and I say if a colleague can encourage and support me to go and spend a couple of days with my brother and in-law in Kano and demonstrate that he has not quarreled with me and has not seceded from Nigeria. I don’t need a passport or visa to get to Kano, so maybe others would have peace of conscience and live in peace and harmony. That is what Ganduje and I are representing to show to Nigerians. And that is the purpose of the colloquium.

“The Fulani man and Yoruba man can show the entire nation that perseverance, great understanding is common blood that is flowing in our veins.

“Part of the reasons why herdsmen are moving around is because of extreme climate change. This is not the harmattan period.

“We better spend on our economy and make sure we tune our economic programmes.

“This is the time to put stimulus expenditure in place, this is no more time for austerity. This is not the time to constrain the economy but the time to create the opportunity.

“If you hear the United States of America spending $1.9 trillion and they are not looking back and they are still asking for $3 trillion for infrastructures, for renewal and creating of job and your unemployment rate is at 33 per cent. And you ask us to keep on fasting, we are fasting no more. The one we are fasting spiritually is voluntary. We have been fasting for many years.

“I hope the National Assembly, the President himself, would not pay attention to austerity.

“Sovereignty is that of Nigeria and it is only the Federal Government that has that sovereign power and must use it for the benefit and development of Nigeria.

‘“It is time, we are under police and we are competing with armed robbers and bandits to recruits from the youths who are unemployed. There are 33 per cent unemployed. Recruit 50,000 youths into the army and various security agencies. Take them away from their recruitment source. What they would eat is growing here, you create demand and consumption.

“Don’t talk about illiteracy, anybody who can own a gun, cock gun and can shoot is technically competent to repair a tractor in the farm. It is not when you are computer literate that you can be technically competent. Those who are working on sugar cane farms can do so many other things like horticulture. We can create the jobs.”  

If Nigeria breaks up, visa will be needed to move around — Osinbajo  

Also speaking on the issue, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, warned people agitating for secession,  saying that if Nigeria breaks up, people will require visa to move around.  

He said:  "This country and its people are stronger and more powerful together than apart. For the purveyors of breaking up into small components/countries, perhaps they should be reminded that we would not have been able to accept Governor Ganduje’s offer to come to Kano at short notice since we would all have needed visas to come to Kano.”

The Vice President called for a new set of Nigerians across all divides who are committed to a country operated on high values integrity, justice, love, among others.  

He said:  “We believe that we now have an opportunity to increase the numbers of a new tribe of Nigerians; a tribe of men and women of all faiths, tribes and ethnicities committed to a country run on high values of integrity, hard work, justice, and love of country.  

“A tribe of men and women who are prepared to make the sacrifices and self-constraints that are crucial to building a strong society; who are prepared to stick together, fight for equity, and justice side by side.

“A tribe consisting of professionals, businessmen, politicians, religious leaders, and all others who believe that this new Nigeria is possible and already we have built and are building the building blocks for this new Nigeria.”

Prof. Osinbajo extolled the leadership style of the former Lagos state governor, saying that central to that style is; first a belief that development, economic, social, political development depends on enabling a contest of ideas.

He opined that, “Whether that is within a political party or its caucuses, a cabinet meeting or even just thinking through a problem.

“By exposing his thoughts and ideas constantly to debate and contestation, he refines his views constantly and is at the cutting edge of issues as varied as artificial intelligence, vaccines, to even what sort of legal processes or arguments should be filed in a matter in court!  

“I remember once when he was suggesting to me that he thought it was better that we should contest jurisdiction in a particular case and so many other times when he had introduced his own legal thoughts to a matter. I have had to keep reminding him that he is not a lawyer! And I am sure others have had to remind him several times that he is not many different things.

“Second, and perhaps more importantly, because he is not afraid of having his ideas scrutinized, criticized by even subordinates, he is able to lead a vast array of persons of strong, deeply held convictions, and a variety of ideologies.  

“The third in that leadership style is that he is completely comfortable engaging across ethnic, religious, and partisan divides.  

“It is his belief that national development is only possible where we, the leaders are constantly interrogating ideas, perspectives, and opinions which are what led some of us who worked with him through the years, to formalize our constant debates so that on his birthday we open up discussions on some issues or issues of national importance.”

He observed the latest Tinubu Colloquium came at a time when a combination of challenges worsened by the fallouts of a global pandemic has created a storm of socio-economic problems.  

“The default mode of some at times like this is to stoke tendencies viewpoints and opinions that threaten the federation and our unity,” he lamented.  

Army’ll deal with threats confronting Nigeria — Attahiru

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, has that under his watch, the Nigerian Army would be ruthless with any and every threat confronting the country.

Attahiru, who made the vow at the opening ceremony of the combined COAS First Quarter Conference and Nigerian Army Operations Retreat 2021 at Command Officers Mess, Asokoro, Abuja, directed Field Commanders, General Officers Commanding, Corps Commanders and other formation commanders to give serious attention towards improving the tempo in all army operations across the country.

Disclosing that the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDS, had been a major impediment to troops and operations in the North-East theatre of operation, the COAS said concerted effort was also being made to eliminate the threat.

“In line with the President’s directive and my intent to rebuild the Nigerian Army into a formidable force, I conceived the vision of having ‘A Nigerian Army that is re-positioned to professionally defeat all adversaries in joint environment.

“To breathe life into this vision, I released my philosophy of command which has readiness, capacity, continuous leadership development and duty to country as cardinal pillars.

“Readiness entails mission-oriented training, functional manning and equipping, while capacity will be built on the dependability of the Nigerian Army to accomplish any mission in line with norms enshrined in our core values and ethics.

“Continuous leadership development on its own ‘will ensure that the Nigerian Army continues to roll out innovative 21st century commanders and, of course, duty to count entails loyalty and sacrifice to our fatherland.

“As formation commanders and principal staff officers, your role is critical to the attainment of my vision. Therefore, I implore all of you to immediately key into the vision so that together, we can take the Nigerian Army to greater heights.

“I am particularly pleased with the initiative to hold the Nigerian Army Operations Retreat as part of the First Quarter Conference after so many years. You will agree with me that the retreat provides a platform to reassess the threat environment and review our operations, with a view to identifying gaps that could be addressed in the planning and conduct of future operations.

Culled from Vanguard